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| I don't think Grampa was this out of place ever again. |
The family just finished Thanksgiving dinner, so now its officially Christmas season. Marge hurries everyone to take their annual Christmas photo. Bart and Lisa find it difficult to understand why they need to do this, but Marge insists they'll understand once they have kids, which Lisa wonders if that will even happen.
A montage of Christmas photos then begin, each year for the following 30 years showing that Bart flunks out of college, Lisa 'experiments' while at college before graduating and eventually marrying Milhouse and having a kid with him, Maggie getting into electric guitar before leaving to become a popular rock singer, and Bart eventually kicked out of the house for being a bum. The last few years see Homer and Marge, finally empty-nesters, visiting all sorts of places, but in the final photo Homer and Marge are back home holding up photos from their other kids: Milhouse and Lisa with their daughter; Maggie performing at a concert, and Bart and his ex-wife Jenda along with their two boys.
In a Christmas season 30 years from now, the elementary school becomes an apartment complex, which Bart lives in. Jenda teleports the two boys over to Bart to spend time with him during the holiday, but Bart decides to just drop the two off at his parents' place in part because he and his kids don't get along. Meanwhile, Lisa laments the attitude of her daughter, Zia, who spends all of her time hooking herself into the "Ultranet". Milhouse has come down with Christmas-related allergies so Lisa decides to go to her parents' place with Zia in hopes that Marge can help the two become closer as Milhouse goes to the now Sharia Michigan to avoid his allergies. Lastly, Maggie has become pregnant, though nobody is quite sure who the father is, and decides to go to her parents' place for Christmas.
As Bart and Lisa arrive with their respective kids, Maggie isn't able to use a teleporter in her condition, and has to go back through the lawless skies. Homer, who has stopped drinking, spends time with Bart's boys and the three have fun. As Zia continues to jack onto the Ultranet, Lisa asks for help from Marge, but Marge's advice to simply relax only angers Lisa further. One night, Lisa and Bart go up to the old treehouse for a talk. Both somewhat drunk on whine, the two decide to find a way to connect with their kids. Lisa apologizes to Marge for her behavior and decides to adopt her passive parenting techniques for Zia. Bart tries to spend time with his boys, but Homer has taken them elsewhere again.
Maggie is on her way, but is forced to the hospital when her contractions begin, and Marge at least is able to make it to see her younger child go into labor. Meanwhile, Lisa can no longer be idle and decides to log onto the Ultranet herself to see what Zia is doing. Finding Zia's personal space within, Lisa finds a small room dedicated to Zia's upstanding role models, including her mother. Zia has always looked up to her mother and the two reconcile, though Zia has less noble intentions going on nearby. Homer takes his grandsons to a cryogenics lab in the graveyard, where ol' Grampa has been frozen for most of these last 30 years because of an illness that hadn't been cured at the time, but now has but Homer hasn't told Grampa because this method is cheaper than the retirement home. After waking Grampa just to be yelled at for a minute, Homer serves a message to the young boys: fathers always seem like a jerk to their sons, but when you get older you realize how much you love him. Bart finally catches up with them, and promises to be a better father to them, and they reconcile. Then Homer unfreezes his father again and they reconcile.
Maggie finally arrives home with her new baby girl, and they along with Homer, Marge, Grampa, Lisa, Zia, Bart and his boys take their annual Christmas photo.
Quick Review
I had missed watching this episode in its initial airing but I was aware that it was met with wonderful reviews, calling it the best the show has been in a long time. I had worried that these reviews were glowing over the episode's emotional factors and not its humorous ones, and after watching I can say that those fears I had were realized. Its not that funny of an episode. Its decent, I'll give it that, but once again the "storytelling or comedy" method shows up to prevent the episode from really hitting a comedic stride. Its the best episode of the season thus far, but that's not saying much at all.
Final Score: 7.0
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